NEW YORK – Sony Corp said it cut the price of its older video game console, the PlayStation 2, by 23 percent to $99.99, in an attempt to woo budget-minded families. The price cut, effective April 1, could sustain the life of the PS2, which has sold more than 136 …

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Multiple airlines are waiving change fees for passengers flying through Mexico because of an outbreak of swine flu but have not canceled flights. Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines said Sunday it will waive its usual penalty for changing reservations for anyone traveling to, from or through …

VATICAN CITY – Looking gaunt, Pope John Paul II (search) appeared at his open studio window Wednesday and blessed the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square. In the approximately one-minute-long appearance, the ailing pontiff raised his hand in blessing a few times but didn’t speak. The appearance began nearly 15 …

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – A feeble-looking Michael Jackson arrived late again Monday to his child molestation trial after another hospital visit, but the judge took no apparent action. The pop star then sat through testimony from a psychologist who asserted few child sex abuse allegations turn out to be false. …

NEW BERLIN, Wis. – When chipmunks got into Terry Ratzmann’s (search) garden, he set up traps to catch them. But his neighbor said he kept the animals alive and let them loose somewhere else. “He couldn’t even kill a chipmunk. He was that kind of individual,” said Gene Herrmann, who …

A specific change in a gene may increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (search) late in life, according to a new study. Researchers say the discovery could lead to a better understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and development of new ways to prevent and treat the disease. Genetic mutations that …

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. – The bitter feud over Terri Schiavo’s (search) fate has made its way to Congress, an answer to pleas from the brain-damaged woman’s parents to have her feeding tube reinserted. Schiavo had depended on the feeding tube for the past 15 years before it was removed Friday …

WYLIE, Texas – One of the pictures strewn across Debbie Wooding’s (search) dining room table shows six boys, all with bare feet. The boy at the end, the one with the crooked legs? That’s Prasad. He’s in the fourth grade, Wooding says, gazing at him lovingly. Then there is another …

HAVANA – Cuban foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque (search) on Monday rejected a recent U.S. State Department report criticizing the island’s humans rights record, saying the United States has no moral authority to judge other countries after its own scandals over treatment of terror suspects. “We exhort American authorities to …

WASHINGTON – FBI Director Robert Mueller (search) is forming a study group to review the law that let suspected terrorists buy guns in the United States after they cleared background checks. Mueller unveiled his plan to form the Justice Department working group, which will include the FBI, in a letter …